Our Pasts Intertwined
by combativeAdjutor
Summary: A series of one-shots for the fic "Four Quadrants" by timewornInkslinger and I but can be read on its own. Humanstuck! What happened between Terezi and Vriska? How did Vriska and John meet? How did Karkat become an actor? And more! Multi-ship/pairings.
1. Scourge Sisters

**So this is a companion piece to the fic that timewornInkslinger and I are co-writing that is called "Four Quadrants". You don't need to read the fic to understand this because these are just one-shots that explain the characters backgrounds. Of you want to find out what this leads to you will have to read the fic on timeworn's page. C:**

**So, this has slight almost Terezi/Vriska if you squint and it mentions some Tavriska. I feel bad for making Vriska such a butch because she is my favorite troll, but Vriska is a bitch so whatever.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Terezi Pyrope remembered the day her career started as if it was seared into her brain. She was eight years old when her mother took her to an audition for a part on a horror movie. She had recently bit her mother's acquaintance, a man who happened to be the movie's producer. Instead of getting upset, he merely laughed and said that with her teeth, she would make an excellent zombie. It was probably meant jokingly, but her mother, a once famous actress that had dropped her career to raise her daughter after her husband's death, took him seriously and brought her to auditions.<p>

All she really did that day was smile, showing off unnaturally sharp teeth. They made sure that she could follow directions and BAM! Faster than one could say 'orange creamsicles', she got the part of a child zombie. Soon after that she was requested for another horror movie, specifically for her teeth-baring smile.

When she was 10 she got the starring role as a possessed child. Slowly but surely, she and her mother built up a horror-movie empire. She became known as 'The Child-Queen of Horror'. Some adults would ask her if she ever got scared of the movies she was in. She would shrug and tell them that she never got the chance to be scared because long before the age when one would normally start watching horror movies she was behind scenes. She knew how everything was done and she knew that it wasn't real. There was nothing to be afraid of.

She was 17 years old when she met Vriska Serket. She had always been aware of Vriska, an actress of similar prestige yet always a step behind Terezi. They were to be co-stars in "Volatile Times", a vampire movie where Vriska's character would be the first person to get turned into a vampire by Terezi's character.

Three months before filming started, Terezi got into a car accident. She lost all sight but gained an ability that baffled doctors everywhere; she could smell colors and use the smells to see. She did not have to learn braille because she could smell what was written. She preferred brightly colored texts over uniform black on white paper because of the different colors, but could smell words in black ink just as well. Her mother bought her bright red glasses and all was well.

"Terezi, this is Vriska Serket." Terezi's mother said, introducing the two.

"You smell like blue raspberry." Terezi said, smiling at her new acquaintance.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Vriska asked, her voice tainted with annoyance. Terezi narrowed her hidden eyes slightly, she had the feeling that she wouldn't like this girl.

"It means that you smell like blue raspberry." Terezi repeated, her smile not wavering.

"You know, I've heard that somewhere before." Vriska said thoughtfully.

"Have you? Hehehe. Perhaps you are familiar with someone named Redglare?" Terezi asked. She could think of one person on the internet that she had ever told that they smelled like blue raspberry. Could this person, her rival in the world of horror movies, be her roleplaying partner?

Vriska's eyes widened. "You're Redglare?" she asked.

"And you are Mindfang, correct?" Terezi stuck her hand out. Vriska grabbed it and they shook hands.

"Nice to finally meet you, sister."

It seemed to be the start of a beautiful friendship. They would call each other by their roleplaying names as if it was an inside joke. They made elaborate plans for their MMORPG and reaped the spoils in the name of justice. Somewhere during that time, a single sprig of attraction began growin inside of Terezi and she would often just sit and think about the other girl. Unfortunately, good things don't last very long. Halfway through filming an argument broke out.

Terezi was turning the corner when she heard Vriska talking to someone harshly. She stopped to listen.

"Tavros, I don't have the time for this. Just leave!" Vriska snapped. Terezi sniffed the air and made out the image of a boy with a Mohawk in a wheelchair. He had pressed himself against his chair, clutching a bouquet of flowers tightly in one hand.

"But I, uhhh, thought that we were, uhhh, dating so I, um, came here to, uhhh-" Tavros stuttered.

"Just spit it out!" Vriska said.

"Uhhh, I brought you, um, flowers." he held out the flowers to her. Terezi liked the way they smelled.

"Awww, you shouldn't have." Vriska cooed as she took the flowers. Tavros smiled. "No really, you shouldn't have." Vriska dropped the bouquet on the ground and smashed it with her foot. Tavros's smile fell into a look of heartbroken horror. Terezi could smell the tears clearly from where she stood.

"Now leave, and if you haven't guessed it yet, we're through. Bye bye Tavvy." Vriska flashed her smile before doing her famous hair flip and turning around, leaving Tavros to look at the shattered remnants of his heart litter the floor in the form of flower petals.

"What was that about?" Terezi asked, frowning at her co-star when Vriska rounded the corner.

"Hmm? That? Oh, my ex-boyfriend was bringing me flowers." Vriska said.

"I know. Why'd you break up with him?" Terezi demanded.

"What's it to you, Redglare?"

"Stop with the RP names. This is serious Vriska." Terezi said.

"Obviously not, anyway, my private life is my private life. I can crush the hearts of as many wimps as I want. Pupa had it coming the moment he told me had played games for little girls." Vriska shook her head at Terezi.

"You are being more stupid than usual, Serket." Terezi scowled.

"Oh, so you think that I am stupid?" Vriska snapped.

"What if I do? My private life is private." Terezi sneered, mimicking Vriska.

"My God, what is your problem? Just stay out of it. What I do with my irons is my business, not yours."

"Irons?"

"You have no idea how many irons I have in the fire, _Pyrope_." Vriska stretched out Terezi's last name like it was a profanity.

"So he was just an iron in your fire? Just a way to achieve your means? He was your _boyfriend_. If your boyfriend was an iron then what am I? Am I one too? Are you planning on just cutting off all relations after this movie?" Terezi growled, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. She had thought that she and Vriska had something special. They had become best friends, sisters. Terezi had wanted to become even more.

"Of course not, Redglare!" Vriska exclaimed.

"Do you even know the difference between reality and games is anymore? I am not Redglare, I am Terezi Pyrope. You cannot play people like you do in games in real life! That is unjust!"

"What are you accusing me of?"

"Me, accuse you of something? The only thing I would ever accuse you of is of being a huge bitch." Terezi cackled, her smile returning to her face.

"Oh, is that how it is, Redglare?"

"You bet it is, Mindfang." Terezi laughed at Vriska.

"You know what? I am fucking happy that you are blind. For a while I might have actually been guilty but-" Vriska caught herself, eyes widening.

"Guilty for what, Serket?" Terezi asked, the smile never leaving her face.

"It doesn't matter! Now just leave me alone to deal with my irons." Vriska snapped, flipping her hair indignantly. She turned and stalked off, taking the only real friendship either of them had ever had with her.

Terezi cried for days, although she would never admit it. On set she was always smiling and cackling loudly, flirting with some people and quietly manipulating others. Aside for the scenes where Terezi's and Vriska's characters interacted the two avoided each other. Any hopes for some sort of future, friends or otherwise, with the other girl was lost to rivalry and, slowly, hatred.

Almost ten years later, the thought of hosting a game show where she will see her once best friend with her boyfriend terrified her. She could only hope that her co-host, a Karkat Vantas, could offer sufficient entertainment.

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><p><strong>Please review. C:<strong>

**The next chapter will be how John (a famous pianist) met Vriska because he is her boyfriend in the future.**

**Want to request a pairing for "Four Quadrants" chapter 4? Go to that fic and answer the trivia question in chapter two (or three, it depends) and if you get it right we will include almost any pairing. C:**


	2. Games and Puzzles

**So, this is how Vriska met John. I hoe you guys enjoy.**

**Editted by timewornInkslinger, written by me. If you like this you should check out our co-written fic "Four Quadrants" which takes place about a year after this.  
>Reviews are great, so please leave some, okay?<strong>

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><p>The first time she heard him play was at the piano at the local mall. She was wearing a scarf and a hat as she didn't want to be recognized. She was a famous actress, after all.<p>

He was wearing a fedora and a fake mustache that was a few shades off of his hair color. At the time, she thought that he was a freak; a freak with mad piano skills. She couldn't prevent herself from stopping in the middle of the mall to listen to him play. Too soon, the song ended and the mysterious pianist stood and left, leaving no traces of his presence behind besides the last notes that lingered in her mind.

She threw herself into music. While it had never concerned her much before, she now took the time to listen to the music. Yet no kind of music or instrument could affect her the way that the anonymous pianist had. He had made her feel normal for the first time since she was 17.

It was the evening before her 24th birthday when her friend, Kanaya, called her.

"Hello." Vriska said, answering the phone.

"Vriska, have you made plans for this evening?" Kanaya asked her, her voice calm and tinged with a slight English accent, like always.

"Nope. Why? Do you want to do something?" Vriska asked her best friend. Kanaya hadn't always been her best friend, before her there was someone else, someone who Vriska didn't like to think about because of the feelings of loss and regret that were associated with the name. Kanaya had helped her through a lot of rough spots in her life, thus earning the highly coveted title.

"Yes. I was hoping that you would be interested in going to a piano performance with me." Kanaya told her. Vriska's eyes lit up. Kanaya was the only person she had told about the pianist.

"YES! Did you hear that, Kan? That was eight exclamation points. Let's go!" Vriska said excitedly. Kanaya laughed and told her that she would be there in half an hour. Vriska quickly tore her closet apart until she found a simple yet elegant black dress to wear and stepped through her room, careful to avoid the dice and eight balls lying on the floor.

Forty minutes later she was in the passenger seat of Kanaya's car, trying to hide her excitement beneath a façade of nonchalance. "Who are we going to see perform?"

"A very famous pianist by the name of John Egbert." Kanaya explained, smiling as she saw through her friends act.

"John Egbert? That's a really weird name." Vriska laughed. Kanaya shook her head and she found a parking spot. Soon they found themselves seated, facing a sole piano on the stage. The lights dimmed as a man, presumably John Egbert, walked onto the stage and sat down in front of the piano. There was something familiar about the way he sat, Vriska just couldn't put her finger on it. Then, he began to play.

She gasped quietly, loud enough for Kanaya to look over at her and notice the shocked look on Vriska's face as the notes that had been featured in the backgrounds of her dreams for weeks now echoed in the theater.

"What is it?" Kanaya asked, expressing concern for her friend.

"It's him. This is the piano player from the mall." Vriska whispered back.

"Are you sure? It could have just been someone playing the same song."

"I'm positive, Kanaya. That is him. I need to talk to him."

"Do you?"

"Yes. I don't know why but I do. I think I've found a new game." Vriska smiled.

"A new game?"

"Yes, now shush, I'm trying to listen."

Kanaya stopped talking but couldn't stop feeling concern for John Egbert. Vriska was like a spider, if she wanted someone, all she had to do was spin her web, slowly and surely, and by the time it was complete her prey would be unable to escape. Her prey this time around? The young pianist.

After the show, Kanaya lost Vriska in the crowd of people exiting the theater. She knew Vriska and knew that it was not an accident. Kanaya sighed and waiting in the lobby while everyone cleared out, waiting for her friend.

Meanwhile, Vriska snuck into the backstage area and looked around for the black haired man. It was much less busy than the sets of movies and TV shows that she had starred in, for which she was thankful. Of course, there were still many people involved with the famous pianist.

There! A flash of black hair caught her eye and she ran after it, narrowly avoiding people and props. He was exiting through a back door!

"No! Wait!" she called after him. He stopped and turned. Vriska didn't stop running fast enough and crashed into him.

"Woah. Are you okay?" John said, laughing a bit. Vriska blushed and took a step back.

"Yes, I am okay. Oh, and what an honor this is! Meeting such a famous pianist." Vriska said, flipping her hair.

"I wouldn't say that I'm so famous. But you seem very familiar. Have I seen you before?" John asked, smiling brightly at Vriska.

"No, you haven't." Vriska said quickly, a slight blush rising to her cheeks. He was much more attractive than she had imagined.

"Wait! Yes I have! You were in that one horror movie that my friend Dave took me to see! Woah! You look a lot hotter when you aren't a zombie." John said, then he blushed when he realized what he had said. "Uhh, sorry." Vriska smiled. He found her attractive? That made her game so much easier.

"That's okay. Thank you. I'm flattered, actually" she giggled, a sound that seemed unnatural coming from her but she had perfected over the years. She flipped her hair over her shoulder again.

"So, what is your name?" John asked.

"Vriska Serket."

"John Egbert, but I think you already knew that."

"Hey, John. There you are! We've been looking for you everywhere!" a girl with long messy black hair and green eyes ran up to John. They could have been siblings, they looked so alike. Behind her were a pair of blondes, a boy and a girl. The boy's eyes were covered with black sunglasses while the girls eyes were an unnatural purple. She recognized the girl.

"Hello, Rose." Vriska said, smiling at her best friend's girlfriend. She didn't like Rose very much but she made Kanaya happy and, regardless of how Vriska might act, Kanaya's happiness mattered to her.

"Vriska? You don't seem to be one who goes to piano recitals, so am I correct to assume that Kanaya is around here somewhere?" Rose asked.

"Yes, we were separated. She is probably waiting for me in the lobby. I think I will go meet her now." Vriska replied. "It was nice meeting you, John." she smiled.

"Wait! Kanaya? Like, the girlfriend that you haven't introduced us to, Rose?" John asked.

"Yes, that is the Kanaya I was referring to. Vriska is her best friend." Rose said.

"I think you should introduce her to us! We can all go out to eat together." the black haired girl said excitedly.

"It is rather late in the evening…" Rose began.

"Nonsense. Kan and I usually eat dinner late. I'm sure she'll be happy to eat with you guys. She's been really curious about you."

"Really? That's great. Let's go find her!" John said.

"I suppose that is acceptable, as long as she doesn't mind." Rose said.

"She won't mind. Let's go!"

Soon, the six of them found themselves in a little bar and grill, getting to know each other. Jade had recently broken up with her boyfriend and she was a famous botanist. Dave was a movie director and a writer, he also managed a webcomic what was becoming well-known. Rose was writing the third book in her book series "Complacency of the Learned". John was going to take a short vacation before going on tour in Europe with several other talented musicians. Kanaya was working on designing a new line of dresses for her fashion design mentor's brand and hoped that they would be accepted. Vriska had an audition coming up; she was planning on branching out and would see if she could land a role in a romcom.

They found that they all had a good evening and it wasn't the last time the six of them had a meal together. Vriska didn't know when it happened, but, gradually, her feelings changed. She no longer wanted him for entertainment, it was no longer a game. She wanted him to succeed in everything he did.

She wanted him to love her.

A month after that first meeting, Vriska woke up to a text from John that read "hey, vriska meet me at the starbucks on main street at noon, okay?"

She glanced at the clock. 11:00am. She jumped out of bed and hurried through her messy apartment, taking a quick shower and getting dressed. She grabbed the first hat in her closet and donned a pair of thick sunglasses before running out of the house.

When she arrived at the chain coffee shop John was already there. He was sitting near the window, two coffees already on the table. She walked over and sat down. She glanced at the cup and smiled with pleasure when she realized that it was her regular drink.

"Hello, John." she said, smiling but still looking at him carefully, not sure what this could be about. None of his friends were around, which was a first for them.

"Hi, Vriska." he said, not looking up at her. She frowned. What could this be about?

"What's up?" she asked, glancing away, hiding her curiosity expertly. She was an actress, after all.

"Well, you know that my vacation is coming to an end in two weeks and I've been offered a position in France as part of a classical music group after the tour. I've been thinking about accepting it." John began. Vriska froze. No no no no no no no no. This couldn't happen. This would ruin everything. She stared at him, wide eyed.

"Oh, that's great." she said, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice. No! She was not like this. She would not be upset if he left. She didn't love anyone.

"Yeah! It really is! But, I wanted to know. Vriska, will you give me a reason to stay?" John asked. He finally looked up at her, met her wide eyes with his own. Hope and embarrassment met worry and nervousness.

"What do you mean?" Vriska asked. He couldn't be asking her what she thought he was; that was impossible. No way, not with her terrible luck.

"Well, God, I don't know how to say this without sounding sappy but, will you be my anchor, to keep me in place? Will you be the hand that the yo-yo always goes back to, regardless of the length of the string? Oh god, that sounds stupid. Vriska, will you be my girlfriend?" John finally said. Vriska smiled, a genuine smile. All of the feelings that had been scattered all over since she'd had a falling out with…someone…finally fell into place.

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><p><strong>AN: Awww, look at that. I wrote fluff, aren't you proud of me?**

**So, the next story in this series will feature Karkat, Gamzee, and Aradia. **

**All reviews are welcome!**


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